Jesmond Toak works as a repo man in the fictional town of Johnsonville, located in a hurricane alley on the Florida coast. He has a troubled relationship with his father; their pastor's gay son, Bayonne, has become implicated in a suicide by gas asphyxiation of his boyfriend; and the woman Jesmond loves, Peaches Raymond, is married (to a threatening man they call "Special Ed"). As various deaths, disasters, and disappearances occur in the days leading up to the arrival of Hurricane Aretha, Woodward ties together these unruly plot points with madcap glee.
As lyrical as Charles Baxter, and as sexy as Zane, Woodward writes with an agile maturity that belies his status as a first-time novelist. Cadillac Orpheus is a crafted, genre-defying romp, by turns terrifying, hilarious, brave, brazen, and above all, sincere.
